, 1887-07-06
THE NEWSPAPERS OF FRANCE.
The Opinions of the Two Mr.. Pulitzers.
Decidedly Different Ideas.


l was in an English tailor shop the other
morning and the proprietor, as a browning
argument in favor of his sartorial pro-
auctions, produced a pair of trousers 'tfor
MI. Pulitzer" The size of the trousers
attracted my attention, and a little inves-
tigation led to the interesting discovery
that there were two Mr.. Pulitzers in
Paris, and that while Mr.. Joseph Pulitzer
has been living in state at the Hotel Bris-
toll with his fine apartment, his courier,
etc, Mr.. Albert Pulitzer, of The New
York Morning Journal, has also been ltY-
ing in state, though more quietly, at the
Grand Hotel, he too having his fine apart
ment and his courier, which all goes to
show: First, that is a great thing TO have
n 'large circulation and second, that the
Paris correspondent of The Morning Jour
nal does not write the society notes in The
~Galignani's Messenger.
The opinions of these two eminent jour
nalists on the newspapers of France are
of course most interesting. Mr.. Joseph
Pulitzer spoke as follows on the subject:
"You want my opinion on French news
papersy Well, / can give 1t to you very
quickly. / think it is simply disgraceful
the kind of thing which they produce
here. They are newspapers in NAME, but
newspapers with the news left out. They
print neither home news nor foreign news,
in fact they print nothing but stories and
essays. They nave no enterprise. Why
this late disaster to the Champagne at
Havre was hardly noticed by them. 1
had to get the details from the scanty
little English papers pointing to the
Galignani and the Morning News. Now
an American which understood
its business would AVE had a man on the
spot by the very first train to interview
the officers, the captain and the pas
sengers, to get photographs Of the scene,
etc, and to send off a complete account
by telegraph, regardless of expense. No,
sir, l don't think much of French news
papers, and, by the way, / don't think
much more of their English rivals"
Mr.. Albert Pulitzer has decidedly DIFF
ferent ideas on the same question. ~
know hat it is the fashion," he said, ''to
condemn French journals OIL the ground
that they are deficient in what WI call
news OF course it is evident that in
this respect they are a long way behind us;
but attribute it not to any lack of enter
prise IN he part of editors and proprie-
tors-far from it-but to the fact that
they recognize that the general demand is
for something quite different. People in
France ave not got hat terrible thirst for
news which u us at home; they
are not Mt all in a hurry to know about
accidents and crimes before it is neces-
sary, and even then they don't want a
great mass of sickening details. In many
ways their tastes are more elevated than
ours. For example, The Figaro will print
two olumns on a new play by Alexandra
Dumas, and will employ one of the most
distinguished literary men in the country
to write the criticism. There is another
great difference; in France all the great
writers contribute to the newspapers, n
these men nra maid ag mncb No BIO OOO tn
$12,OO a year. The result is hat a first
class French newspaper becomes really n
vehicle for the transmission of the highest
order Of literary, scientific and artistic
thought, and certainly that is very much
more han we can say of our American
papers, even the best of m."-Paris
Cor. Philadelphia Times.